- Museum number
- 1868,0808.3379
- Title
-
Object: Arlequin sur l' Hypogryphe à la Croisade Lojoliste
-
Object: Armée van de Heylige Lingue voor der Jesuiten Monarchy.
- Description
-
A Dutch broadside satirising Louis XIV, James II and the Roman Catholic cause in Europe. At lower right, Cardinal Furstenberg (1) has fallen from the back of a tortoise into the Rhine, leaving his Cardinal's hat on the bank. Behind him, the Grand Dauphin (2) peers out of an armoured vehicle carried on the back of a frog. In the foreground to left, Father Petre sits cross-legged on a lobster (3); the lobster clutches in his claws books of civil and ecclesiastical law, and a papal tiara rests on its tail behind the rider. Father Petre, who has ass's ears, holds the infant Prince of Wales (4), a windmill resting on his head. Louis XIV (5) in armour with a wooden leg carries a banner reading (in translation), "Holy Crusade against this Pope and the Heretics" and a shield lettered with Jesuit symbols and "De Vyfde Monarchy 1688". James II (6) mounted behind him on an ass (7) and sharing the same Jesuit cap, also fully armed, carries a banner reading "Papery/Monarchy". The ambassador of the Holy League follows on a snail, his hand to his head from which smoke is issuing. The ass defecates on a group of councillors (9) who are riding owls. In the background to the right of the ass, is a procession of musicians and monks hauling cannon (10) led by a monk riding a pig and holding aloft a crucifix; they display banners referring to Jacques Clément, the assassin of Henri III, Henry Garnett and Robert Catesby both implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, and behind them is a gallows, "the grave of the Jesuits in England" (11). Beyond is cliff-edge(12) with two poles, one bearing the cap of liberty, the other a Jesuit symbol; a ship at sea (13) carries the name of St Reynuyt (patron of mismanagement) on the stern. In the background, to left, religious statues are pulled down from the front of the Savoy Chapel, beside which is shown London Bridge with heads on spikes. Numbering 1-15, engraved title in French, letterpress title in Dutch, and verses including legend, in four columns. (n.p. : [1689])
- Production date
- 1689
- Dimensions
-
Height: 367 millimetres (etching)
-
Height: 522 millimetres (printed area)
-
Width: 385 millimetres (etching)
-
Width: 385 millimetres (printed area)
- Curator's comments
- For curatorial comment on De Hooghe’s full broadsides’ sequence relating to the Glorious Revolution, see 1868,0808.3380.
For another impression, see 1855,0114.194.
For later copies in mezzotint, see 1871,1209.4859.
The scene takes place right after the Glorious Revolution, as James II flees England and relies on Louis XIV as he only finds refuge in France. Both kings’ heads are covered with the same Jesuit bonnet and ride the same donkey that Romeyn identifies with the “Hypogryphe” (taken from Virgil and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso) probably referring to the 5th Monarchy. Louis XIV (5) is here again described as Arlequin and James II (6) as Panurge, a recurrent satirical figure in De Hooghe’s broadsides.
At the bottom left, Father Petre holds the illegitimate son of James II in his arms while riding a giant lobster, an animal used by protestant propaganda to satirize the inconstancy and deceitfulness of the Jesuits.
This was one of Romeyn de Hooghe’s most popular broadside, as shown by several reproductions sometimes made on completely different media. See for instance one of Christian Wermuth’s medals (G3,EM.338) which reproduces the motif of Father Petre riding a lobster, and windmill on the reverse.
Lit.
Wolfgang Cilleßen (ed.) Krieg der Bilder, 1997, F.III.5 (p.282-283)
Henk van Nierop, The Life of Romeyn de Hooghe, 2018, p.217-240
Meredith Hale, The Birth of Modern Political Satire, 2020, p.80-85
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2010 June-Sep, London, Tate Britain, Rude Britannia: British Comic Art
- Associated events
- Associated Event: War of the Grand Alliance 1689-1697
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.3379
